Unwin, Lorna (1994) The role of employers in vocational education and training : partners or passive recipients? PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the role of employers in vocational education and training
(VET) with particular reference to initiatives targetted at the 16-19 age group. Its
premise is that the so-called 'employer-led' initiatives of the 1980s and 1990s
have, in fact, been government-led and that employers have played a particularly
passive role in their design and delivery. Furthermore, the thesis asserts that
employers lack the understanding, knowledge and commitment required to play the
proactive role which the rhetoric of VET demands of them.
Historical sources are used to demonstrate that the struggle to persuade employers to
play a leading role in VET has been taking place for decades and that even the classic
employer-led model, apprenticeship, cannot be said to have been an unqualified
success. The introduction of the Youth Training Scheme is examined in terms of its
effects on employers' company-wide training practices, effects which have been
largely overlooked by previous analyses.
The thesis then attempts to reveal the realities behind the employer-VET interface
through two closely observed case studies of, firstly, a Training and Enterprise
Council (TEC), and, secondly, a Training Credits pilot programme. A qualitative
methodology was used to bring into focus the perceptions, values and struggles of
people working both inside and on the outside of initiatives which are hailed as
vehicles for reversing the national failure to match the rest of the developed world
in terms of a skilled labour force. In order to create a sense of the highly complex
world of VET as experienced by young people, employers, TEC staff, teachers,
lecturers and careers officers, the thesis draws on research data collected over four
years.
The thesis concludes by recommending that employers, researchers, VET
practitioners and policymakers need to construct a new paradigm to encompass a
meaningful role for employers in VET.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	L Education > LC Special aspects of education
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Vocational education -- Great Britain, Employer-supported education -- Great Britain
Official Date:	May 1994
Dates:	Date Event May 1994 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Continuing Education
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Duke, C. (Christopher)
Extent:	247 leaves
Language:	eng

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